A majority party MP has asked Russian investigators to prepare an official letter to the ICC describing crimes by members of Ukrainian nationalist groups - including the infamous Right Sector - and asking they be recognized as extremist.

The author of the initiative, MP Mikhail Markelov (United Russia)
has told Izvestia daily that both the Right Sector and another
mass Ukrainian nationalist organization, UNA-UNSO, have long and
rich histories of involvement in various military conflicts.

These included the conflict in Chechnya, the brief war in South
Ossetia and several wars in the Balkans in which Ukrainian
radicals fought on various sides, such as with Croatians, Serbs
and Albanians, the parliamentarian holds.

Russia has already put Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh on its
wanted over his participation in combat in Chechnya on the
terrorists’ side. Another well-known member, Aleksandr Muzychko,
was under investigation as well until he was killed by Ukrainian
police in March this year.

In 2009, Russia’s top federal law enforcement agency the
Investigative Committee published a report claiming that the
number of Ukrainian gunmen who fought against Russian
peacekeepers and military in South Ossetia was about 200.

Markelov told the newspaper that in his view this record was
enough to make the International Criminal Court in The Hague
issue a verdict recognizing the nationalist groups as extremist
and ensuring an international status of political outcasts for
them.

Legal expert Olga Shepeleva has noted that Markelov’s plan could
face one obstacle – the International Criminal Court reserves the
right not to consider requests from nations that have not
ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC in
1998. Russia has signed the statute, but has not yet ratified it.
However, Ukraine is in the same situation and this fact has not
prevented the new Kiev authorities from asking the ICC to
investigate the violent events that preceded the current
political crisis.

The flamboyant leader of the populist nationalist party LDPR,
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has launched his own initiative connected
with possible trial of Kiev officials, or at least one of their
representatives. Talking to the secretary of the Ukrainian
National Security and Defense Committee, Andrey Parubiy,
Zhirinovsky demanded that his interlocutor immediately order the
withdrawal of troops from south-eastern Ukraine and “stop committing
horrible crimes against [his] own people.”

In case of refusal, the Russian politician threatened Parubiy
with a court trial.

“This is a crime, but you will not be tried by The Hague
Tribunal. Not even a criminal court in Moscow. The highest
instance we can allow you is the military court of the Rostov
Garrison,” Zhirinovsky said, apparently threatening
extradition to Russia to face a court martial.

In subsequent press comments the Russian lawmaker noted that he
was sure that the military garrison court in the southern Russian
city of Rostov-on-Don would at some point issue life sentences to
five representatives of the current Kiev regime – the acting
president and prime minister, the heads of the Interior Ministry
and State Security Service, and the chair of the National Defense
and Security Council.

“Five people makes a junta and they commit crimes as they
kill Ukrainian citizens. There is no war there, but the military
forces have opened fire,” Zhirinovsky said, referring to the
recent clash between Ukrainian military and pro-Russian
protesters at an airfield in Kramatorsk.